The remarkable case of a 5-year-old boy who recalled detailed events from an Indian man's life, as documented by Ian Stevenson.

Parmod Sharma was born on October 11, 1944, in Bisauli, India. When Parmod was about two and a half, he began telling his mother not to cook his meals for him any longer because he had a wife in Moradabad who could cook. Moradabad was a town about a ninety miles northeast of Bisauli. Between the ages of three and four, he began to speak in detail of his life there. He described several businesses he had owned and operated with other members of his family. He particularly spoke of a shop that manufactured and sold biscuits (cookies) and soda water, calling it "Mohan Brothers." He insisted that he was one of the "Mohan Brothers" and that he also had a business in Saharanpur, a town about a hundred miles north of Moradabad.

Advertisement

Parmod tended not to play with the other children in Bisauli but preferred to play by himself, building models of shops complete with electrical wiring. He especially liked to make mud biscuits which he served his family with tea or soda water. During this time he provided many details about his shop including its size and location in Moradabad, what was sold there, and his activities connected to it, such as his business trips to Delhi. He even complained to his parents about the less prosperous financial condition of their home compared to what he was used to as a successful merchant.

Parmod had a strong distaste for curd, which is quite unusual for an Indian child, and on one occasion even advised his father against eating it, saying that it was dangerous. Parmod said that in his other life he had become seriously ill after eating too much curd one day. He had an equally strong dislike for being submerged in water, which might relate to his report that he had previously "died in a bathtub." Parmod said that he had been married and had five children--four sons and one daughter. He was anxious to see his family again and frequently begged his parents to take him to back Moradabad to visit them. His family always refused his request, though his mother did get him to begin school by promising to take him to Moradabad when he had learned to read.